For ages, books have provided a wealth of information. In 1440, the invention of the Gutenberg printing press revolutionized the book printing world by producing relatively inexpensive books on paper, as opposed to parchment. This infamous idea sparked an information age where other people besides clergy could afford and/or gain access to print books. While several advancements in printing books have occurred over the years, in 1971, Michael Hart, founder of Project. Gutenberg, used a XEROX® Sigma V mainframe computer to create the first digitized, electronic book (herein also referred to as “eBook”). Using the mainframe computer, he typed (i.e., digitized) a copy of the Declaration of Independence. He believed that computers would one day be accessible to the public and decided to make literary works available in electronic form.
Then with the creation of the internet, eBooks started to gain steam. Initially, eBooks were generally written for specific technical areas. For example, the subject matter may have ranged from technical manuals to manufacturing techniques. These eBooks were meant for a small, specific audience and therefore were few and far between. Then around 2001, some major publishing companies finally took notice of the eBook trend. Consequently, electronics hardware manufacturers began to develop eBook reader (herein also referred to “eReader”) devices in hopes of capitalizing on the eBook phenomenon. In keeping with this emerging trend, publishers launched online stores and partnered with eReader manufacturers to further establish themselves in the eBook marketplace.
Today, due to the global impact of eBooks, publishers are beginning homogenize eBook publishing formats and eReader device manufacturers are developing new device models every few months to keep up with the competition. In addition, software developers are creating dedicated eReader software that ultimately displays the eBook on a dedicated eReader device or on multi-purpose access devices such as handheld access devices, smartphones and/or game consoles.
Even with all the advancements in the eBook marketplace, one of the concerns when reading eBooks is the display of content on the access device. For some types of content, a reflow style presentation is acceptable. A reflow presentation displays the content over a number of ‘virtual,’ electronic pages with the number depending on the user selected font size. While an excellent approach for general reading, this is to the detriment of content that relies on page centricity or where page numbers are heavily used for citation. In addition, certain secondary content/text, such as footnotes and/or reference notes, does not correspond to the proper print page. For example, within the legal profession, attorneys search, select and read multiple legal cases. Within these legal cases are various footnotes, regarding a point of law, a citation, etc., and are essential to reading and understanding the case. Moreover, when reading and ultimately citing a legal case, an attorney usually needs to have the print page number to reference the citation properly.
Currently, a known approach to general document display via electronic publishing standards includes treating each page number as an anchor in the flow of the eBook. An anchor is a named location within a markup language document that may be used for navigation within the document. For example, a set of anchors in the markup language document corresponds to print page breaks. The user could use those print page break anchors to navigate to a location in the markup language document where a print page break occurs. While this approach permits navigation to a certain page within the eBook, the approach does not consider secondary content/text such as footnotes and/or other reference notes.
Another known approach is to display the page in an image format. For example, the eBook could be in an image format such as ADOBE® pdf format. While this approach shows the correct allocation of secondary text (i.e., it is an image of the print book), an issue arises when a user wants to resize the font. Since the eBook is in an image format, the user can only zoom in and out on the image which disrupts the user's reading experience.
Other known approaches to displaying, in particular, secondary text, such as footnotes, include: 1) aggregating the footnotes and positioning them at the end of the document, similar to endnotes, or 2) having the footnote text be displayed in a pop up window. In both approaches, a hyperlinked numeral is positioned at the end of the sentence to which the footnote refers. In the first known approach, if the user chooses to select the hyperlinked numeral, the user is navigated to the end of document where either the full footnotes reside or the specific footnote location. In the second known approach, if the user selects the hyperlinked numeral, a pop up window appears with the footnote text. The user then has to close the pop up window to continue reading the primary text. However, both of these known methods have disadvantages. For example, each approach significantly disrupts the user's reading experience by navigating away from the primary content/text. In addition, these approaches do not electronically reflect how the page looked in print which in certain circumstances, such as the example discussed above, is crucial to the reader/user.
Accordingly, the inventor has recognized the necessity for additional improvements in paginating and displaying, particularly reference notes, on a mobile access device.